May 4, 1970

Although it’s been 38 years now, I can’t seem to forget this day.

This is excerpted from the Eau Claire (Wisconsin) Leader-Telegram, May 4, 1970…

Non-Silent Minority Opposes New Thrust

To the Editor:

I [must protest] the decision, announced by President Nixon on April 30, to deploy American ground and air combat troops into neutralist Cambodia. This [action … further compounds mistakes] … [already made] by this and previous administrations …

I truly am unable to comprehend how the American people [are able to] tolerate such irresponsibility [on the part of our national leadership] …

American young men are dying in Vietnam, and now Cambodia. For what?

[If] the South Vietnamese people are determined to be free of Communist aggression, they themselves are the ones who must rally forces to fight and defend their land.

[Our presence] in Southeast Asia is unconstitutional … we are engaged in a large scale war operation without a formal declaration of war. [Surely this is a] mockery of the document upon which our form of government was established … !

[Are] not the “brave young men,” including reluctant inductees, dying needlessly [in a part of the world where we have no legitimate business]? I [believe] this [to be] the case and cannot agree with the President’s decision to expand the war efforts in Southeast Asia for any reason or for any length of time. Mr. Nixon, you must bring all the American troops home immediately and call a halt to this immoral, unjust and unconstitutional fiasco.

Respectfully, from one of the non-silent minority,

PEACE

James C. Arnold

Of course, also on this day (from the New York Times)…

4 Kent State Students Killed by Troops

Kent, Ohio, May 4 -- Four students at Kent State University, two of them women, were shot to death this afternoon by a volley of National Guard gunfire. At least 8 other students were wounded.

The burst of gunfire came about 20 minutes after the guardsmen broke up a noon rally on the Commons, a grassy campus gathering spot, by lobbing tear gas at a crowd of about 1,000 young people…

For the full text of the article, click here.

See also, the official May 4 website; and for an academic discussion of the day’s events, read The May 4 Shootings at Kent State University: The Search for Historical Accuracy by Jerry M. Lewis and Thomas R. Hensley.

Soundtrack Suggestion

Tin soldiers and Nixon coming,
We’re finally on our own.
This summer I hear the drumming,
Four dead in Ohio.

(“Ohio” – Neil Young)

I Love Being Published

[This article appeared on page G-39of today’s 96 Hours Magazine of the San Francisco Chronicle.]

Flickr Pickr: Jim Arnold

Charles Howard

Thursday, April 10, 2008

TechnoMonk:: Jim Arnold, known as technomonk on Flickr, is an academic dean at a junior college in the North Bay. Although his day job is administrative, he says his true passions are photography and writing. There is no higher calling than “artist,” he says. Arnold has been photo-documenting the world around him since the mid-1970s, and for a few years he made his living doing event photography. He says he used manual-focus 35mm equipment longer than anybody he knows, but finally embraced the digital world in 2004. “When anybody asks me what kind of photography I do, I just say that I’m a wandering documentary photographer ... and then point them to my Flickr site.”

Want us to pick your flickr picture? On the photo-sharing Web site www.flickr.com, tag your images “SFChronicle 96Hrs.” If we like it, we’ll run it here. We especially like Bay Area images and local photographers. To view the 96 Hours gallery of flickr picks, go to sfgate.com/96Hours. For more great Bay Area photography, check out Frederic Larson's “Mystical Photography” on sfgate.com.

- Charles Howard, choward@sfchronicle.com

Fantasy & Reality

It’s no secret that I used to party a lot (back in those alcohol-saturated times of my misspent youth). Once in awhile during those mostly-hazy days, in my often-stuporous state, I would dream of really big-time partying: you know, the kind that takes place in New Orleans at Mardi Gras, or in Las Vegas or Hollywood any ol’ night of the week.

Well, I never made it to The Show. As things turned out, I was only ever a minor-league partier. By the time I made it to (pre-Katrina) New Orleans it was 1999, at which time I had been sober for 16 years. And it was just two weeks ago, in March of 2008, when I visited Las Vegas for the first time (now working on my 25th year of sobriety).

I was only in Vegas for a little under twenty-four hours, and then, specifically, for the occasion of my niece’s wedding. This event took place in a nice little (actually very tasteful) wedding chapel, with just a few guests in attendance. I was lucky enough to be on hand with my camera to document some parts of the occasion. When the champagne corks were popped, I abstained.

The little bit of the town I saw was everything I imagined it to be…and, really, I only saw a small slice of life there. But in just my little taste of the Vegas experience – from airport, to hotel, to dinner, to breakfast, to chapel, and back to airport – there were several sights familiar to anyone who has ever watched CSI.

And then, this last weekend, I got to visit the place all over again. Sort of. I went to see “21” – a film that has been out a couple of weeks now, and is the number one movie in the country. The movie has not enjoyed favorable reviews, but, at least for me, it’s easy to understand why it’s so popular. It is mostly set in Las Vegas (and partly in Boston), and the plot allows us to totally escape our everyday realities for a short time.

It’s the story of a small team of young, smart, good-looking college students (from MIT) who are recruited by their math professor to learn card counting. They eventually get good enough at their craft to make numerous visits to Las Vegas and win tons and tons of money.

It’s based on a true story, but, for most of us, it’s total fantasy. Personally, the movie was a vehicle to dare to imagine another kind of life: a different way to (perhaps) have utilized my math skills – and have ended up among the rich and famous. Well, at least the rich.

In these trying economic times, who can’t use a healthy dose of escapism to get our minds away from our everyday bill-paying struggles? And, if you’re a Boomer, as I am, who still doesn’t see a retirement date in sight…well, any way to find a “quick fix” to a tenuous financial situation seems quite an attraction.

When you watch “21” you’ll find yourself vicariously living a high-risk, high-adrenaline, beautiful-person life.

But don’t get too used to it. Afterwards, you’ll go home and heat up some left-over pizza.

Reality resumes.

Soundtrack Suggestion

I used to smoke, I used to drink
I used to smoke, drink and dance the hoochie-koo
I used to smoke and drink
Smoke and drink and dance the hoochie-koo, oh yeah
But now I’m standing on this corner
Prayin’ for me and you…

(“Saved” – Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller)

Plan To Be Surprised

Dan Burns (played by Steve Carell) writes a daily newspaper advice column entitled “Dan in Real Life.” He’s a widower and the anxious, overprotective father of three daughters. The wisdom about love and life he offers up to his readers apparently comes from a voice within that he is able to transmit but cannot really hear himself. The morning after he and the kids show up at his parents’ (Dianne Wiest and John Mahoney) beach house for a holiday, family-reunion-type weekend, his mother immediately orders him to go out and “buy the papers” — and take some time away from his daughters who are obviously exasperated with their totally-not-so-cool dad.

It’s in a used-book store, where Dan decides to buy the morning newspaper, that he meets Marie (Juliette Binoche). Marie is obviously in the midst of some kind of minor personal crisis and she “needs a book” to get her through. She asks Dan for some help thinking that he’s an employee there. Although amusing and obliging, he eventually gets busted as just another customer. After asking Marie if he can make it up to her, Dan, in the initial stages of infatuation, spends a good portion of the rest of the morning telling her his life story.

It’s only when she eventually gets called away, and he returns back to the beach house, that he learns this “hottie” he’s found is the new girlfriend of his brother Mitch (Dane Cook). And that this weekend is to be her induction into the family.

The rest of the movie, Dan in Real Life, is spent illustrating the myriad awkward (some hilarious, some touching) moments that arise when, in the middle of this intimate family gathering, Dan and Marie work through their mutual-attraction issues.

This is a romantic comedy, of course, so it’s a happy ending. And while the outcome is entirely predictable, I recommend that you, too, see this movie. Treat yourself: escape for awhile and vicariously experience some of those giddy, beginning-of-a-relationship feelings.

So here’s why I mention any of this…

I believe this film reinforces one of life’s basic truisms. Namely: you just never know. For there you are, completely minding your own business and, wham (!), for better or worse, you turn a corner (or enter a bookstore) and your entire life changes. Further, while you can make plans for your time here on earth, the advice remains: expect the unexpected.

“…the only thing you can truly plan on…is to be surprised.”

The Beaver Nation

Is it acceptable for a sixty-year-old like me to label another person “elderly?”

I wonder…

Anyway, whatever possessed me to make a trip to the grocery store on a Saturday afternoon, I’ll never know. But that’s what I did. I traveled over to San Rafael late today to pick up a few things from Trader Joe’s. It was very, very busy — and it took about 15 minutes to check out of the “express lane.”

Then, after I got back out into the parking lot, I started the car and proceeded to wait and wait just to back out of my spot. The traffic surrounding the store was totally ridiculous!

While looking in my rear view mirror to watch for an opening, I noticed an “elderly” guy (80ish, I’m guessing) exit a vehicle across the way. After he got out of his car, I could see that he glanced my way. Then it seemed as if he was staring at something in my direction.

It turned out he was. When there was a little break, and a car stopped for him so that he could safely cross, he walked directly over to me and tapped on the window.

When I rolled it down a notch (he looked harmless enough, but I was still suspicious of his motives), he immediately asked, “are you a Beaver?”

This is a rather strange question, of course. And, for many of you out there, I’m sure it could be a tad offensive. But, for me, given that I have an “Oregon State Beavers” license-plate frame and a “Member, OSU Alumni Association” sticker on the rear of my car, the inquiry was a pleasant surprise.

“Yes I am,” I answered. “I have two degrees from OSU and lived in Corvallis for twenty years.”

“Did you see the game last week?,” he asked.

“Yes I did! Was that amazing, or what?!” (OSU toppled the Number 2-ranked team in the country last Saturday, defeating California, at Berkeley, 31-28.)

We traded names, shook hands, and then continued on with our respective Saturday afternoons.

So I found another member of the Beaver Nation! (Or rather, he found me.) Right here in Marin!